Saladin Forge

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Lord Saladin Forge is a TitanGuardian and one of two known survivors of the original Iron Lords. He was one of the founders of the Iron Lords and helped end the Dark Age of Risen Warlords to establish the City Age. However, most of his comrades perished in a battle to contain SIVA, causing Saladin to dedicate his life to maintaining a watch on the Plaguelands to ensure SIVA never emerged again while also fighting to protect The Last City from threats. In time, he established the Iron Banner to keep the memory of the fallen Iron Lords alive and train the new Guardians in the ways of old. When the House of Devils uncovered SIVA and unleashed it upon the Cosmodrome, Saladin worked with The Young Wolf to end the threat of SIVA for good and begin a new generation of Iron Lords.

"Why in the Traveler’s crack did you wish to fight an actual DRAGON, old man?""We are knights, Lady Efrideet. Do you not want to be a dragon slayer?"

— Efrideet and Saladin after encountering an Ahamkara

Saladin was found and raised by his Ghost during the Dark Age, at which point most of humanity was scattered and lived under the ruthless rule of other Lightbearers who had become Warlords. Saladin befriended three other Risen who did not follow the Warlords path; Radegast, Jolder, and Perun. Together under Radegast's leadership they hid from the Warlords in isolated communities and feared other Lightbearers, and only occasionally struck against the oppressive rulers. When the mining community they were staying at was assaulted by five Warlords, Saladin and the others fought and killed them, but the civilians they sheltered with were all killed in ensuring battled. As they buried the bodies, Saladin listened as Radegast declared they could no longer live in fear of the Warlords and must become Guardians of the people, gathering likeminded Risen to aid them. While Jolder and Perun suggested recruiting Bretomart and Deidris, Saladin told Radegast he trusted only him. Together, they declared themselves the Iron Lords and vowed to bring an end to the rule of the Warlords.[2]

Sometime after Saladin recruited Efrideet into the Iron Lords, they encountered an Ahamkara, which were able to grant wishes. Saladin wished to fight a dragon, which transformed the creature into a giant dragon that breathed fire. While Efrideet stayed back and fired on the creature with her rifle, Saladin closed in with his Iron Battle Axe to fight the dragon like a knight of old. He wounded the creature several times while dodging its flames, but his axe soon began to melt from the heat, although he judged it still had enough edge to cut the beast. Efrideet tried to get him to reconsider his strategy and questioned why he had wished to fight a dragon. Grinning under his helmet, he shouted back that they were knights and he wanted to be a dragon slayer. Leaping at the roaring creature once more, Saladin yelled to his companion that they were what they survived.[3]

Eventually, Saladin and his comrades discovered SIVA, a self-replicating nanotechnology created during the Golden Age. They believed it could be used to aid them in protecting humanity, but it turned against them. Unable to destroy the techno-virus, the Iron Lords sealed it beneath the earth. However, the virus claimed the Iron Lords, and Saladin was one of the only two to survive.[4][5]

During the Battle of Twilight Gap Saladin led the City's defense during the battle, alongside his students Lord Shaxx and Commander Zavala. Though he remains on good terms with Zavala, his relationship with Shaxx has become strained due to his defiance of orders during the battle, where he instead led a counterattack on the Fallen, pushing them off the City's walls.[6]

One year after the events of the Taken War, the Fallen and the House of Devils managed to unearth SIVA, and their Splicers tried to harness the technology. Unable to defeat the mutant Devils on his own, Saladin began seeking out Guardians to help him form a new generation of the Iron Lords to end the threat of SIVA once and for all.[4][5]

After guiding the Guardian into the Plaguelands and deep into Site 6 in order to shut down SIVA, remnants of the Iron Lords twisted by the technovirus attack in defense of the SIVA production chamber.[7] After destroying the remnants and the chamber, the Guardian returns to Felwinter Peak, where Saladin gifts them a newly forged sword and names them the first of a new generation of Iron Lords.[8]

After the Red War, Lord Saladin would return to the new Tower to once again host the Iron Banner tournament, having previously tasked Efrideet to do so during the SIVA Crisis. Saladin recently also displays distaste for Osiris due to his infamous exile of the Last City, and also further explaining that it was Ikora Rey who reformed the Warlock order, not Osiris. After Rasputin was awakened on Mars and declared itself the guardian of humanity and the solar system, Saladin expressed deep concern for the situation. He told the Young Wolf that if it were up to him, the Vanguard would destroy the warmind.

He used to be found in the Traveler's Walk area of the Tower, and sold gear in exchange for Glimmer and Iron Banner Reputation.[9] He re-forged weapons for Motes of Light.[10] The Weekly Bungie's actual weapons and armor available tend to change from each event. His duties was taken over by Lady Efrideet, and the Iron Banner was at the Iron Temple on Felwinter Peak. Saladin himself would return to take charge of the event after the Red War.

Stoic, serious and experienced yet somber and grim are the best words to describe Lord Saladin. From the day he became a Iron Lord, Saladin takes his purpose and duty in protecting the survivors of the Collapse with complete dedication, becoming a pillar of a what a Titan and Guardian should be. Saladin believes in the code the Iron Lords stood for in using their Traveler-given abilities to protect and serve, not to conquer as the Warlords did. However, as a result of his experiences and losses, Saladin has been hardened from them all. Despite being famously serious, Saladin does have moments of humor, mostly with old friends like Efrideet.

Beneath his stoicism lies a deep sadness and guilt over the deaths of his fellow Iron Lords at the hands of SIVA. He was particularly close to the Iron Lord's leader, Radagast, who became his mentor while Jolder became his closest companion among the Iron Lords. Upon their deaths, he hoped to that he would never have to revisit his past but continued to honor their legacy with the Iron Banner tournament and with the threat of the Devil Splicers, he realized that the danger was greater than keeping the full story of the Iron Lords and SIVA a secret. However, with the help of the Guardian, he was able to make peace with what had happened and relieve centuries of burden.

With the Guardian, he at first saw them as a promising student that needed training but of course he makes sure that they stay humble and focused. Saladin's respect and praise for the Guardian would grow throughout the SIVA Crisis, dubbing them the first of a new generation of Iron Lords, the title of Lord Guardian and the name of Young Wolf.

Much like his own students, Saladin has a prideful, stubborn streak, as he normally doesn't back down from a fight and doesn't apologize easily. While he maintains a friendship with Zavala, Saladin has a shaky relationship with Shaxx at best for both refuse to make amends over the issue that divided them. However, like Shaxx, Saladin respects all the classes of Guardians.

"I know I began weak, the same as you. I don't care if you're an Exo, staring at that number and wondering where you've come from. Or a Human hungry to understand the ancient world that left you for dead. Or an Awoken reborn in the very essence of what your people hide from. Together, we're the pointed end of a long stick of happenstance. Change one ripple in an ancient ocean and we would never have been granted the Light within us, or the good Ghosts that want to help us.

"Humble origins.

"Every world begins as a big pebble lost among trillions of pebbles. Every worthy sun was once cold hydrogen spread thin across the vacuum. Even the universe, this cosmic garden that surrounds us and awes us... this monument to Creation was once the size of an apple seed. And everything that's splendid and great stands at the end of incalculable chance and mayhem.

"Yes, you have talents. Enormous, wondrous powers. But you should put the smirk away. Do you know what a Guardian is? Not yet. Your name is another pebble. You are a cold apple seed.

"Do you like it better when Lord Shaxx oversees these matches? So do I. A busy Shaxx, is a quiet Shaxx."

"Die! Die! Di-(cough) Sorry. I've been watching too many Iron Banner matches. What time is it? Shaxx? Shaxx, are you there? Can you get me a water? Stop yelling, it's just a question. I'm not old!"[13]

"Your weapon defines you!" - when picking up Power Ammo

"Rasputin is not to be trusted. That Warmind will do anything to get what it needs. Felwinter hoped Rasputin would help us. That hope costs me my brothers and sisters in arms: the Iron Lords. I will not abide losing you, Guardian. If it were up to me, we'd be at all-out war with Rasputin. But my time to lead is over. Our future is in your hands. Show me how you've grown. The Iron Banner will prepare you for what's coming.﻿"[14]

A replica of Saladin's battle axe was created by the blacksmith company Sword and the Stone.[15]

Before Destiny 2, announcements in the Iron Banner were done by Lord Shaxx. Now, Saladin takes that responsibility.

Should a player obtain a "We Ran Out of Medals" medal in an Iron Banner match in Destiny 2, Saladin will blurt out, "Die! Die! Die!", the same line said by Reaper in Overwatch when using his Ultimate as the two characters are played by the same actor .